


What's In a Name?

by madamewriterofwrongs



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Comfort, Domestic Fluff, Engagement, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Misunderstandings, Nicknames, Sibling Love, Wedding Jitters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:07:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25286569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamewriterofwrongs/pseuds/madamewriterofwrongs
Summary: “I just realized, there’s no more Buckleys after this.” Buck startled form his thoughts at his sister’s realization.“What do you mean?”“I’m a Han now, and you’ll be a Diaz. All our cousins have changed their names, too.”..."You're the last of the Buckleys."Buck and Eddie's work-safe bachelor party takes a slight detour for the soon-to-be-newlyweds.AKA: Buck freaks out about changing his name.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Maddie Buckley, Evan "Buck" Buckley/Evan Diaz
Comments: 33
Kudos: 218





	What's In a Name?

**Evan** Origin: _Welsh_ | Meaning: _Good is Good_  
**Buck** Origin: _American_ | Meaning: _Deer_  
**Buckley** Origin: _Irish_ | Meaning: _Herdsman_  
**Diaz** Origin: _Spanish_ | Meaning: _Son of Diego_

* * *

“To the soon-to-be newlyweds.”

The crowd of friends and family raised their glasses to the two men standing arm in arm at the end of the room. Buck and Eddie toasted back with gleeful smiles.

“To us!”

Eddie stared at his fiancé joyfully, and pressed their lips together to emphasis just how happy they both were. Buck mirrored his expression and leaned forward for another kiss. This truly was a perfect moment: surrounded by loved ones, getting happily sloshed on alcohol they didn’t pay for, and celebrating their love for one another – a love that had been a long-time coming.

The pair had never been destined lovers, nor had their first meeting felt overly romantic, but they’d found each other and worked hard to create a relationship that made them happy and open to the idea of ‘forever’. They hoped it was forever at least, but one of them had had ‘forever’ before. This time would be different. It had to be.

It would be, because it was Buck and Eddie. They were partners and friends who were moving forward together with both eyes open. They talked about everything; they shared their lives completely. All that was left, was for them to walk down the aisle.

Until that moment came, the couple were happy to cuddle close and mingle among the crowd who’d gathered at their “work-appropriate” bachelor party, kindly hosted at Eddie and Buck’s house.

From across the room, Buck spotted his sister and brother-in-law making their way through the crowd, and pulled Eddie’s attention towards the arriving pair. Hugs and kisses were exchanged, congratulations long passed, and Maddie held Buck’s hand with shining eyes. She knew a thing or two about love that was a long-time coming, and felt so much pride that her brother had found someone who made him smile so genuinely.

“I can’t believe it’s so soon.” She squeezed their joined hands and Buck returned it. “Are you nervous?”

His smile only broadened when he released her fingers to throw an arm around his fiancé. “Not even a little. All that’s going to happen on Saturday is we’re going to sign a piece of paper, put on a bit of jewelry, and continue living the amazing life we have been.” He stared adoringly into Eddie’s eyes. “Just the three of us.”

“Well if that’s all we’re doing, why did we spend all that time and money on a wedding?” Eddie teased.

His fiancé dipped closer to offer a conspiratorial whisper for all to hear. “Because I want a party, and you can’t say no to me.”

Eddie would have been offended by the presumption if it weren’t true. Instead, he shook his head before leaning in for a brief kiss. Something about the free-flowing drinks and giddy atmosphere made them both a little more tactile. “You and Christopher are going to be the death of me.”

“Look at the Diaz boys being all cute and flirty. I’m gonna be sick.” They didn’t pull away when Chimney teased, far too used to their friend’s snarky comebacks and amicable disdain as his way of expressing affection.

Maddie perked up as he spoke. “Yeah, when does the paperwork come through?”

“Supposedly it will be processed the Monday after the wedding” Buck informed her. “We sent it off like three months ago so we’re hoping it comes in on time. In about a week, I will officially become a Diaz.”

And if that wasn’t the best part of this whole thing (other than getting to married his best friend); Buck was joining the family he wished he’d always had. The family that made breakfast together and made more of a mess than an actual meal. The family that snuggled on the couch and watched movies until one or all of them fell asleep curled into each other. The family that sat around the dinner table as often as possible and talked about their day – and actually cared. Even if they’d been doing all of those things for a while, come Monday morning, it would be a legally-binding family.

“I just realized, there’s no more Buckleys after this.” Buck startled form his thoughts at his sister’s realization.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m a Han now, and you’ll be a Diaz. All our cousins have changed their names, too.”

Was that true? “Not Alex” Buck pointed out. It was unlikely the fourteen-year-old would be changing their last name for many years.

Maddie dismissed his offer with a shake of her head. “We don’t actually know that he’s a cousin. Aunt Christine definitely had an affair with her boss which could mean he’s not even a Buckley.”

“You were at his baptism” he scolded.

His sister gave a shrug and brought her glass to her lips to mutter “I said what I said.”

Buck wasn’t about to argue (though he secretly had been wondering the same thing for years, Alex would always be his cousin regardless).

“Yeah well what about…” He mentally catalogued his short list of relatives to see if any of them still carried the Buckley last name. Their parents and aunts and uncles were Buckleys, of course, but none of them would be passing on the name again, and their children had all changed their names. Except for Buck. “Huh. I guess we all changed our names.”

Triumphantly, Maddie raised her champagne flute and the others followed suit. “You’re the last of the Buckleys.”

“Yeah.” Buck downed the rest of his drink in one gulp.

As the party was winding down, the earlier revelry had subdued to a clatter of conversations throughout the house. Some were on the couches, slowly sinking into oblivion as the now-conservatively-flowing alcohol and late hour took effect. Others had stationed themselves in the kitchen to help with the cleanup and escape some of the louder chatter. A few (namely Eddie and Albert) were currently sitting at the dinner table playing cards and letting Eddie win since it was his party after all. For all the happy commotion, Buck was nowhere to be seen. On a hunch, Maddie poked her head out onto the patio they’d opened hours ago, when the body heat had gotten a little too heated. Her brother was leaning over the railing, staring out onto the backyard he’d helped to cultivate, nursing his fourth glass of champagne (and hadn’t she seen him drinking a few beers earlier?). Carefully, she sidled up to Buck and leaned beside him.

“What are you doing out here?”

“I’m moping.” He didn’t look at her, but Maddie was very familiar with Buck’s patented Puppy Dog Pout and its various incarnations. There was ‘I’m genuinely upset and my face just looks like this’, ‘I really want something so I’ll pretend to be cute (and it usually works)’, and ‘I’m upset about something but it’s not that big a deal so I’m just gonna mope for a bit’. This was clearly one of those times.

“How much have you had to drink?” she laughed, bumping his shoulder.

“A little.” An overly articulated ‘a little’ meant that he was simply buzzed. Maddie rolled her eyes.

“Uh huh. Do you want to tell me why you’re moping?”

Buck bumped her shoulder in retaliation of her teasing. “Maybe.”

She settled in for whatever it was that had Buck so sad and adorable (though she’d never admit that to him). “What’s up?”

“I don’t want to get married.”

Of all the low-stakes scenarios Maddie had imagined could be bugging her brother, this was no where near the top of her list. It wasn’t even on her list. It wasn’t on any other list except for the ‘things that Buck would never say’ list.

“It’s literally all you’ve been able to talk about for months.” She muttered more to herself “it was getting annoying how excited you were.” None of this made sense. “What happened?”

“I can’t be Buck anymore.” He looked at her so earnestly, Maddie couldn’t have laughed even if she wasn’t incredibly confused.

“What do you mean?”

“My last name won’t be Buckley so you can’t call me Buck anymore.” Her brother said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And to him it was. He’d been using that nickname since he was in middle school and there was another Evan B in his class. The name always felt like _him_ so he’d kept it into adulthood but now? The ‘B’ was gone.

It wasn’t so obvious to Maddie. “I don’t think that’s how nicknames work.”

“Now I have to go back to ‘Evan’.” He made a face to match his mocking tone. He liked his name well enough, but the idea of only being called Evan for the rest of his life was wholly unappealing after spending so much of his life being someone else.

“Better not let mom hear you say it like that.” He quickly schooled his features when his sister reminded him of how offended their mother had been when she’d learned about his use of the nickname. ‘I chose that name for a reason, Evan, why do you insist on contradicting me?’

“I don’t want to change my name.”

Maddie placed a soothing hand on her brother’s forearm. Even if she didn’t understand him, he was clearly distressed about the situation and that was enough for her to (temporarily) set aside her teasing. “You don’t have to change your name just because you’re getting married. But I thought you wanted to.”

“I do.” He gestured a little too wildly and a bit of his champagne dripped onto his hand. Maddie grabbed the glass as he continued his enthusiastic explanation. “I love the Diazs and I want to be a part of their family, but if my name’s not Buckley anymore, why would people call me Buck?”

Maddie shook her head. “Because it’s your nickname? Buck, I think you’re overthinking this (which is understandable). You’re about to take a big step and, as casual as you both are treating this ceremony, it means something to you.” She knew that she wouldn’t be so adamant about the sanctity of marriage if she hadn’t met her second husband. She had fresh memories of dancing with the man she loved that weren’t overshadowed by what that man turned into, and she wanted those memories for her brother.

“If you genuinely don’t want to change your name, Eddie will understand. But you’ll always be Buck, no matter what. Okay?”

He considered her words, knowing that she was right. It seemed a little ridiculous to whine about a nickname when he was days away from the biggest change of his life. Maddie had made her comment about being the last of his family and it sent him spiraling; not about the wedding, but about his name.

Deciding to change his name had come from several long discussions with his fiancé and his sister (sometimes together, but mostly as late-night phone calls that ended in a scolding to pick a better hour in which to freak out). He’d meant it when he said he loved the Diaz clan. They’d made him feel a part of their family from early on in his relationship with Eddie. It was a complete dichotomy to the small, quiet family gatherings he’d attended as a child. And Eddie and Christopher; he had invaded their perfect duo long before any romance started, but they’d let him stay and it was the happiest he’d ever been.

When it came time to deciding how they would mark their change in relationship status (especially since their wedding rings would be absent for so much of their day), he’d been the one to suggest changing his last name. He wanted to join their family permanently and Eddie had kissed him through happy tears so his fiancé was definitely on board.

They’d also talked at length about the possibility of more children. He’d wanted to be a father since the moment he held his cousin in his arms at the age of thirteen. Then he’d held his niece for the first time and that feeling only grew. And then, he’d returned the little one to her mother and walked across the room to hug Christopher, and the feeling went away. He had everything he needed with them. He wanted to be a Diaz, and he had no emotional connection to the Buckley last name beyond the nickname he’d spent his life cultivating until it was synonymous with his birthname.

Maddie was right, though, one didn’t necessarily change the other. Even if it felt strange.

“Buckley-Diaz would be a little long for all my gear, wouldn’t it.” He conceded with a shy smile.

Maddie hadn’t even thought of that. “Are you both gonna be ‘Diaz’ at work?”

“Yeah, Bobby ordered new coats and nameplates for us. It’s still pretty long since we had to spell out our whole names. We couldn’t both be E. Diaz.”

“You could always be Diaz 1 and Diaz 2.” She offered, unhelpfully.

He shook his head, taking her suggestion with the same seriousness. “Eddie would hate being called Diaz 2.”

“You think you get the number one slot?”

“I started at the station before him” he shrugged.

Maddie gaped at her brother, on the verge of laughter. “And he had the name first.”

“Well it doesn’t matter because starting next Monday, I will officially be Evan Diaz.” His heart skipped a beat when he said the name out loud. He’d only said it once or twice, but it finally felt real. Starting next Monday, everything would be different; yet nothing would change.

“Only on paper” she jumped in before his thoughts could drift back to the notion of his name. “You’ll always be Buck to me. And to Eddie. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him call you Evan.” Who know what went on behind closed doors but whenever she’d been out in public with the couple, Eddie had always called him by his nickname.

He nodded. Eddie rarely used his legal name, born out of habit since they were two months into their friendship when Eddie caught sight of his driver’s license and loudly asked ‘wait, is your name Evan? How did I not know this?’.

To Eddie, he was always just ‘Buck’. “Only when he’s really mad at me. Or when I’m…never mind.” He blushed as his mouth nearly ran away from him. It was officially time to stop drinking.

Maddie gave him a disapproving look as she realized the implications behind the way his voice trailed off and his cheeks matched his birthmark. “Gross.”

But her admonishment didn’t last long, as she began to wonder what had set him down this path. She had never seen her brother so happy as when he’d shown Maddie the rings they’d be exchanging. He’d gone into full research-mode when it came to planning the wedding (‘nothing fancy’ he’d told her ‘just small and perfect’) and she had to admit, it was exactly what she’d envisioned for the two of them. He was happy and excited right up until…

She’d mentioned their last names.

Maddie hadn’t meant anything by it, but clearly, her words had had a bigger impact on her brother than she realized. She shook her head with a soft sigh. “I didn’t mean to scare you with the whole ‘Last of the Buckleys’ thing.”

It wasn’t something she’d worried about when she’d taken her husbands’ names. As a woman in the Buckley family, that’s what you did: you changed your last name to fit your spouse. You joined their family and created a new life there, eventually passing that name along to your children, thus preserving a legacy. Her brother was volunteering to change his name and inadvertently leaving behind something that had been a part of him. She sought out his gaze with a gentle smile.

“Just because we’re not passing on our name, doesn’t mean we’re not leaving an impact, right?”

Maddie was right, of course. The idea of what he’d be leaving behind wasn’t a new one. He knew he didn’t need the Buckley last name to do good in the world. “Yeah.”

“Okay.” She took his quiet admission as a sign that he had heard her and was going to be all right. “Are you still moping?”

The thought of going back inside wasn’t so appealing. Just because he knew Maddie was right, didn’t mean he was ready to put it all away. He scrunched his face and asked “one more minute?” and Maddie chuckled.

“Do you want me to send Eddie so you can mope at him?”

Crowds of people, he couldn’t always handle. His fiancé? Any time. “Yeah.”

She stared at her brother for a moment, taking in his profile. When she’d left home, he had been this lean kid dealing with a growth spirt who had no idea what he wanted to be when he grew up. She’d watched him build muscle and test out a few jobs but somewhere in the three years they’d been wholly separated, he had changed. When she’d found him again, he was lost but looking for something; she’d been able to see it in his eyes. Now, that look was gone. Even in his mopey state, he wasn’t lost anymore.

“I love you, little brother.”

Buck smiled at his sister; a weight gone from his shoulders. “I love you, too.”

He was only left alone for about five minutes before he felt a familiar warm presence pressing in beside him.

“Maddie said you want to call off the wedding?”

He rolled his eyes, flipping to lean back against the railing that had supported him many a night. “Of course she did. I just had a minor meltdown about changing my name but I’m all good now. My sister’s just getting her shots in before she makes some sappy speech at the reception.”

Eddie smiled at the image of his future sister-in-law standing on a chair and telling embarrassing stories about her brother. He was definitely looking forward to it. That didn’t mean he’d forgotten the rest of his fiancé’s explanation. “What about the name change?”

Even after Maddie’s reassurances, Buck needed to hear it from Eddie. Just to be sure. “You’ll still call me Buck, right? After the paperwork comes through?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“I won’t be a Buckley anymore.”

It hadn’t occurred to Eddie that Buck would want to change his name. Changing his last name had been something they’d talked about – and the way his heart swelled at the thought of it, hadn’t died down in all the months since it was first brough up. But the idea of Buck being so attached to his name and worrying about the implications of the change was something new. Was he supposed to stop calling him Buck when he ceased to be a Buckley? The idea of calling him Evan all the time felt, odd. He’d fallen in love with Buck and he would always be Buck to him.

“You know, half the time, I forget Buck isn’t your real name.”

His fiancé chuckled softly. “I’m Buck Buckley?”

Eddie echoed his teasing words with a sentimental laugh of his own. “Yeah.” But it wasn’t that, exactly. He knew Buck’s real name was Evan (after two months of knowing him anyways), but those four letters never suited him as well as the ones he had chosen for himself. “I don’t know. I guess Buck was always just as much your name as Evan is. And as much as Diaz will be.” He hesitated a touch before adding on “if you still want to.”

Buck nodded enthusiastically. “I do.”

“Save that for Saturday.” He knew Buck’s heart fluttered in time with his own at the thought of their impending nuptials. The way he rolled over to wrap his arms tightly around Eddie’s back made him smile. They were in the homestretch, days away from walking down the aisle (or across the park, as it were) and taking the next step together. That upcoming day was hard-won, and Eddie had never been so calm and yet excited as he had been this week.

Buck felt it too.

“We’re getting married on Saturday” he muttered in wonderment.

“Yup.” Eddie held his arms to trap them in their embrace. Not that either was is any hurry to move. “Gonna sign the paper and put on the jewelry.” He’d said it in a mocking tone but he recalled Buck’s words with a slight twinge of hurt.

Long accustomed to the things Eddie didn’t say, Buck tucked his chin into the crook of his fiancé’s neck. The day he’d discovered that Eddie was at practically perfect chin resting height, he made it one of his favorite spots to live. He recognized his words from earlier in the evening and heard the tired voice that echoed them. Buck knew Saturday was so much more than what he’d said, but did Eddie? “It’s more than that.”

“You said”

“I know, I brushed it off but…” How to bring to life all the things Saturday meant to him. How to express just how giddy he was at the thought of spending his life with this man. “I can’t wait to take a whole day to ourselves, to celebrate us, and the amazing life we’re gonna have. And at the end of it, I’m going to change my name, and I will join your family forever.” No questions. Buck was sure of that now.

Eddie knew all of it. Knew how hard Buck had worked to make their wedding perfect because ‘you’ve already done this, but this is my only shot’. He’d done the church wedding for his family; this time, it would be what he wanted. He knew that Buck’s decision to change his name had not been one made lightly. Eddie had suggested hyphenating but his fiancé had been adamant that he wanted to join the Diaz family. The thought of how easily Buck said ‘forever’ filled his stomach with fresh butterflies.

“Forever, huh?”

“Yeah, you’re not getting rid of me anytime soon.” He could feel Buck’s cheeky grin against his neck and it only made his own smile brighter. Buck had been his family for a long time. They were brothers in uniform, a makeshift family of necessity, co-guardians of an amazing young man (that fact still knocked Eddie off his feet), and lovers joined in a bond built out of trust and faith. Even if he hadn’t realized it yet, Buck was always going to be Eddie’s family.

“You know you’re already family, right?”

Buck nodded, his lips brushing against Eddie’s skin as he smiled. “But it’ll be official. I get a fancy new coat and everything.”

“That was a really nice early wedding gift.” Bobby had brought them into his office last week looking concerningly nervous, only to present the boys with matching turnout jackets and nameplates that bore their names.

 _Eddie Diaz_ and _Evan Diaz_

It had come with a somewhat sappy speech about how proud he was of both of them. Buck had cut him off with a reminder that he could say all of that when he was sitting at the reception as one of his groomsmen. They’d tried to divide their team evenly but, in the end, Chimney had agreed to MC and stand as Buck’s best man, and Hen was proud to stand beside Eddie. Their sisters had also agreed to join their parties but as far as Buck was concerned, having Maddie there to help him get ready before he and Eddie walked forward together, was the only thing he needed.

Eddie hummed, pulling Buck out of his thoughts and back to their conversation. The image of the mentor he’d come to love and respect, growing misty-eyed as he spoke to them would stay with Buck for a long time. “I think Bobby was gonna tear up when he gave it to us.”

“Oh, he definitely was.” Eddie found himself swaying in his fiancé’s arms, sentimentality creeping in. “Maybe I was a little, too.” He had absolutely blinked back tears when his captain and friend had laid the jacket in his hands, and told him to hold on to what makes him happy. He intended to keeping holding Buck for as long as he could.

Buck freely admitted to wiping a tear from his eye during Bobby’s speech and he knew Eddie had as well. It had been a weepy room all around. That didn’t mean he was beyond a little playful teasing.

“Are you sweet on me, Diaz?”

Eddie pulled back just enough to look his fiancé in the eyes. “Not a chance, Evan. I’m already spoken for.”

He leaned in to kiss Buck’s cheek but the man pulled away with an all too familiar moping look on his face. “You broke the streak” he whined.

“What?”

“I told Maddie that you only ever call me Evan when you’re really mad at me or sometimes when I’m going down on you.”

If Eddie hadn’t already but a deposit on the tent rental, he might have killed Buck. All he could do was blush and work _really_ hard not to strangle him. “You told your sister that I”

“Not in so many words.” Buck rolled his eyes, then mumbled “but she definitely understood my meaning.”

Half a decade of knowing him, and Eddie would always find himself surprised by Evan Buckley (soon to be Evan Diaz, he smiled). It was usually good things: bringing Carla into their lives, learning from Christopher how Buck had rescued a dozen people during the tsunami, showing up at Eddie’s door in the middle of the night after a fight so that they wouldn’t go to bed angry. Sometimes, it was awful: learning that Buck had betrayed his trust for the sake of his job, pushing Eddie out of the way of a collapsing cliffside only to fall himself, making Eddie sign off on Buck’s will after a particularly nasty scare (he’d had a long talk with Maddie after that and they were on the same page about what would happen if the worst occurred). Sometimes, like now, Eddie could only stare at Buck incredulously; a little fond, a little exasperated, and a little disbelieving that this man would be in his life forever.

“Every time I think you’ve stopped embarrassing me in front of her, you go and do it again.”

Buck would never admit it to anyone except Eddie, but he loved that look: the ‘what am I going to do with you?’ look that promised a lifetime of exploring just what they could do to each other. He responded with a cheeky grin. “What can I say? The Buckleys are sharers.”

“Well the Diazs are not” Eddie was quick to remind him. “So, you better not pull that stuff around my sisters.”

Buck had been waiting until after the ceremony to reveal some of the things he’d learned when Eddie’s sisters had taken him to lunch; but now seemed like the perfect time for a sneak peek. “Adriana knows how to keep a secret” he hummed coyly.

The way Eddie’s face fell slack told Buck he was running through all the scenarios in his head of what Buck could possibly have said. Eddie was beyond worried – though he knew Buck would never share anything too personal, his sisters had a knack for finding the littlest things to tease him about. “What have you been telling her?”

 _Oh no, Firefighter Diaz_ , Buck thought. “I think you should be more worried about what she’s been telling me. Were you really arrested for streaking?”

Eddie’s head fell back onto Buck’s shoulder, a mortified sigh escaping his lips. “Oh my god.” He might have gotten around to telling Buck some of his more embarrassing stories but knowing his sisters had been doing the work for him, made him even more concerned for what lay in store for him.

“I was 18, I was about to enlist” he explained. “I thought it was my last opportunity to do something stupid but I got caught.” The look on the officer’s face when they shined their flashlight on a naked and cold Eddie, hiding in the bushes a few blocks from his home, was seared into his memory forever. “I got off with a warning; didn’t even go on my record.” He did, however, have to explain to his sisters why he was sneaking into the house sans clothing at three o’clock in the morning. Another memory that haunted his dreams. “And my parents know nothing about it so you are taking that to your grave” he warned.

While Buck was smart enough to never bring up that story around anyone else (but he would absolutely be bringing it up in the privacy of their home, whenever Eddie tried to scold him about doing something mildly reckless, like leave a candle burning while he went to the washroom).

“See, a week away from marriage and we’re still learning things about each other.” They both noticed that he hadn’t actually agreed to keep Eddie’s secret, but he let it go for now. For now, he just wanted to hold tightly to the arms wrapped around his waste and stare out at the backyard filled with memories and hopes for the future.

The motion-activated sensor had turned off, so the only light bathing the grass came from the open back door and its streak of yellow shadows as guests moved around the house. A cool breeze was washing over the city of Los Angeles, with the promise of a windstorm in the coming days. As long as it didn’t bowl over their entire party, Eddie welcomed it. Even if it did storm, nothing would be able to ruin that day. Inside, their friends and family were chattering away, filling their home with fresh life.

On a normal Tuesday night, it would just be the three of them, the picture of domesticity. If the weather was nice, they might spend the early evening playing in the backyard or sitting on the porch drinking lemonade while watching the sunset. Tonight, Christopher was with the other children who were not allowed to see their parents get this wasted, spending the night at a sleepover hosted at May’s new apartment. It had taken some work for her to convince Athena that she could, in fact, babysit three preteen boys that she’d known since they were little, and one well-behaved child. It had taken more convincing for Eddie, Hen, Karen, and Buck to approve of leaving the children for that long – even if it was with May. But they had all earned one night of partying, knowing that they didn’t have to worry, and they could take as long as they wanted sobering up, because no one had to work tomorrow.

Thank god for first responder schedules and summer breaks.

They really should be getting back inside. Everyone was there to see them, after all. Selfishly, Eddie pulled in tighter to his fiancé and just swayed into their embrace.

“Are you good, Buck?” he murmured, not daring to break their spell.

Buck kept the gentle movement between them slight, to keep the lights from tearing into the bubble of contentment. He knew what Eddie was asking: ‘Are you done freaking out about changing your name?’ but he also heard ‘are you ready to spend the rest of your life with me?’ and ‘Are you happy?’

He pressed a gentle kiss to Eddie’s cheek. “Yeah I’m good.”

Eddie hummed, turning just enough to whisper in Buck’s ear “there is one more time I’m going to have to ruin the streak and call you Evan. When we’re at the altar.”

He melted into his fiancé, turning to meet his gaze. “You sap” he teased, even as he dipped forward for a sweet kiss.

In their time together, they’d had many types of kisses: tentative, sexy, desperate, lazy, jubilant, healing, pleading, content. Eddie’s favourite by far was the sweet, slow kiss of two people who had all the time in the world. Even if he and Buck never got married, they would still have forever; he would make sure of it.

They weren’t a predestined love; their wedding day was hard-won, and their life together would continue to be fought for, no matter what came their way. Sometimes they would get in their own way. Some days, they would fight and find their way back to each other. Some days, one of them would do something ridiculous and they would still get over it.

Eddie pulled sharply away from their kiss just enough to stare into Buck’s eyes, with a familiar, incredulous look.

“You were gonna call off the wedding because of a nickname?”

Buck had the decency to blush but not the foresight to deny the truth. “Well don’t say it like that” he pouted. He hadn’t meant to let his thoughts carry him away and yet, here they were. Eddie would forgive him, would tease and mock, but ultimately forgive the little things – as would Buck. They’d talk (as they had) about the big things, and keep trying.

And come Saturday, they would walk down the aisle together and promise to spend the rest of their lives trying. On Monday, if the stars aligned, Buck would officially join the Diaz family. But tonight, they could celebrate their union surrounded by the people they loved most.

Eddie gave Buck another peck, and unraveled their embrace until only their hands were connected. Gently, he pulled his fiancé back into the house.

“Come on, Buck. Our guests are waiting.”

**Author's Note:**

> I am a sucker for these two being dorks in love and taking things a little too seriously. 
> 
> Kudos/Comments are always appreciated.
> 
> Check out my tumblr [madamewriterofwrongs](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/madamewriterofwrongs/blog/madamewriterofwrongs)


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